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Publishers of all genres now expect, even require, writers to help market their work. When Sarah Busse and Wendy Vardaman of Verse Wisconsin posed the question, “How do you find an audience?” to the small-press panelists at the Wisconsin Book Festival, Charles Nevsimal of Centennial Press kicked off a round of answers specifically directed at poets, but the advice is sound for fiction and nonfiction writers, too. Here’s what Charles and the others had to say:

Find or Build a Community

As a writer, you need to seek out other readers and writers and network. Start or join a book club or critique group. Join writers’ groups like the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets or Council of Wisconsin Writers or Romance Writers of America.

Attend Conferences and Events

Author appearances at local book stores are free; conferences cost money, but also provide access to agents, editors and instructors. Support other writers and share your work. Get invested in others’ writing, and get them invested in yours.

Give or Host Readings

Once your work is published, or publishing-ready, offer to give readings. Local libraries, civic or cultural groups with an interest in your subject, even friends’ book clubs are interested in the opportunity to speak with authors and you get a chance to raise your profile. Step up to the mic at a poetry slam. If you have a group or venue, host readings. You’ll meet other writers and interested readers.

Bribe Family and Friends

Bake them cookies; tune up their cars. Then twist their arms to talk up your book and your writing. Have them tell all of their friends. Ask them to ask their friends to tell more friends. Word of mouth matters.

Beg Booksellers

Chat up your local booksellers. Get them interested in your book, then ask them to recommend it to readers who might enjoy it. Offer to autograph copies if that will spur sales. Stop in often enough that you (and your book) are never far from their minds.

Use Guerilla Marketing Methods

Slip a bookmark with your book’s cover and information on it into books on the shelves in stores. Print broadsides with a poem or excerpt on one side, the sales information on the other and leave them in places where readers might find them: in the newspaper at Starbucks, on the subway/El/bus, on community bulletin boards.

Participate in Online Communities

Facebook. Twitter. You need to be there. And you need to craft your posts and tweets in a way that directs people to your writing, including opportunities to buy your books. Connect with people you know, and attract others based on the content of your wall/tweets. Be yourself, and connect your writing to you.

While Charles kicked off the answers, the other panelists all contributed to these suggestions. My pen wasn’t fast enough to catch the attributions, so I’ll just list the rest of the panel here and thank them for the terrific advice: B.J. Best, editor of Desperado Press; F.J. Bergman of Mobius-The Journal of Social Change; Lester Smith, president of Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets and (I apologize for neglecting to mention this in the last post) president of Popcorn Press; Ralph Murray of Little Eagle Press, Wisconsin; Linda Aschbrenner of Marsh River Editions and former editor and publisher of Free Verse; and Richard Roe of Fireweed Press.